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October 14, 2007

In honor of Halloween, one of the 3rd grade classes will be singing Purple People Eater. Their classroom teacher asked me if I would make a recording for them to sing along with and I decided to do a Soulja Boy remix.

October 08, 2007

So far, teaching music in an urban elementary school is just plain difficult. I have over 300 new names to learn and I know maybe 30-40 so far. The group I know best is my lunch crew. I have lunch duty every day and I am assigned to specific group of 2nd graders. They are cute but difficult to work with nonetheless. They only get a half an hour to eat and lunch and have recess every day. I think they need lot more time to expel some energy! Many of them only eat a small amount of the food they are given. Our school is big on their new health policy, which means they can't have candy, soda, potato chips, etc. No one is making sure they actually get some nutrients into their bodies, though!

I have two classes for each grade, from kindergarten up to grade 6. I also teach a combined pre-K class, which includes special needs students. My easiest classes are probably kindergarten and 1st grade, although I always find that I run out of stuff to do with my kindergarteners! From 2nd grade up, they become a real handful. There is always a lot of anger in the air and it's difficult not to get angry myself. We do a call and response clapping drill, which is supposed to get their attention. I give smelly stickers to those who freeze when they're supposed to. They freeze pretty well, but it never lasts long. All of my classes, from 2nd to 6th, are on a point system where they are working toward an incentive they chose as a class. A pizza party is the most popular one. Thankfully, the nurse gave me the OK on bringing in pizza.

It seems that just about every child in the whole school knows the Soulja Boy dance. Hopefully, I will be able to develop lessons that are more immediately relevant to their world as I go along. I want to broaden their horizons, but I also want to meet them "where they're at" and help them to explore the music that surrounds them daily.

Chorus is going fairly well so far. I have about 60 participants and they are divided into three groups. My most difficult rehearsal so far was the first one with boys only (they're group 3). We're learning 6 songs for our Winter concert.